Webster County MIS director outlines budget, flags cybersecurity and software cost pressures

Andy McGill, MIS director for Webster County, presented the departmentbudget to the convening body and warned that rising software and supply costs and overdue cybersecurity work are shaping the countyinformation-technology funding request. McGill said he included a multi-year pay adjustment for an employee named Nate and several capital and maintenance items in this year's submission.

Why it matters: McGill told the group that some essential services supporting public records, email and phone systems now carry higher recurring fees and that a formal cybersecurity assessment is needed to satisfy grant requirements and to protect county systems. Those costs, he said, could materially affect the countybudget planning for the coming year.

McGill walked through line items and the reasoning behind them. He said routine office supplies were budgeted modestly ("$100" in the packet), while data-processing supplies such as toner and cartridges were increased to roughly $6,500 to absorb vendor price increases. "Toner has gone up tremendously," McGill said, adding that many vendors have applied roughly 5% to 10% increases across services.

On cybersecurity, McGill said, "We've not had a cybersecurity assessment in about 4 or 5 years," and noted that the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is no longer providing free county-level assessments under the current administration. He reported assessment costs quoted in the discussion "anywhere from 30 to $45,000," and said he had included a line for a paid assessment in the computer-services category.

McGill described a recovered-item line (labeled in the packet as a $63,200 entry) for disaster-recovery hardware and said total recovery capability would be roughly $80,000 to establish an off-site failover in another county-owned building. He also reviewed software maintenance and license increases, saying some contracts show a 5%–8% rise year over year and reporting that the county's Tyler financial software fees went up by "about 8%" this year.

He said the county added an annual backup for its Microsoft 365 environment (email, Teams and OneDrive) and has renewed endpoint management and monitoring tools used for patching and access tracking. McGill said the county cut some legacy VMware licensing and is evaluating options, including a potential move to Tyler Cloud in a future year to improve remote access and business-continuity capabilities.

A participant noted state-level uncertainty: "There are several property tax bills at the state house right now, getting anywhere from a 2 to a 4% cap on growth for counties," an unidentified speaker said, and McGill and others said that potential policy changes complicate multi-year budget forecasting.

McGill closed by reiterating the department's five-year replacement cycle for servers and storage and by asking for questions; board members thanked the MIS team. The transcript records no motion, vote or formal decision connected to the presentation.

Quotes from the transcript: "We've not had a cybersecurity assessment in about 4 or 5 years." (Andy McGill) "Toner has gone up tremendously." (Andy McGill) "They went up about, I think, 8% this year." (Andy McGill, referring to Tyler fees)

Next steps: The transcript does not record a formal vote or action; McGill's presentation and the budget details will remain subject to the county's regular budget review and approval process.